Working in energy?

<p>I know energy is now a booming field and it will likely becore a very high yielding and powerful industry as time goes on. I was wondering, other than chemists etc, if engineers work in enegy. I assume that they do. What field would that be, what would an energy job entail, and and are they jobs looking good for the future?</p>

<p>I'm thinking nuclear, chemical, mechanical, and electrical, but there may be others.</p>

<p>I'm thinking about working in that field too and I'm planning on majoring in ChemE.</p>

<p>BioEs work with ATP :)</p>

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I'm thinking nuclear, chemical, mechanical, and electrical, but there may be others.

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You pretty much covered it, but Industrial Engineers might be included...</p>

<p>what does a chemical engineer do? From what i read they design the machines that massproduce drugs etc. I figured it had to be more than that, such as energy. any insight on this?</p>

<p>also, if you worked int he energy field for a while would it be easy (assuming youre good) to land a very high paying energy consulting job?</p>

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I'm thinking nuclear, chemical, mechanical, and electrical, but there may be others.

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This may seem like a reach...but how about petroleum</a> engineers ?</p>

<p>lol well theres a couple caveats associated with petro engineering. working in very isolated, boring, dirty places for long times AND the fact that eveyone int he west is trying to replace oil</p>

<p>I am a mechanical engineer and I work at an electric power plant (coal-powered). I'd say that having a MechE degree is a good degree to have since many of the concepts learned in MechE are used on my job as a performance engineer. Electrical engineering comes in handy with dealing with all of the electrical components and controls for the plant and power grids. And with the addition of environmental control systems that use all kinds of chemicals, environmental engineers and chemical engineers have positions as well. However, in some cases certain engineers get involved in areas that don't particularly match their degree. One of the guys on my team has an EE degree but does not EE for his job.</p>

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well theres a couple caveats associated with petro engineering. working in very isolated, boring, dirty places for long times

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You mean Houston ?</p>

<p>Well, I tend to group petroleum engineers with chemical engineers. I know they're different, but here in Canada, I don't know of any PetE programs, and most PetE jobs are taken by ChemEs.</p>

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lol well theres a couple caveats associated with petro engineering. working in very isolated, boring, dirty places for long times AND the fact that eveyone int he west is trying to replace oil

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</p>

<p>working out on a rig in the middle of the ocean is a lot more manly than being cooped up in a lab or some cubicle.</p>

<p>they're also probably the highest paid engineers coming right out of undergrad.</p>

<p>also I'd disagree with your oil statement, we'll be using oil for a long time, at least till it runs out. and if the price of oil goes down (which it has this week) people are going to abandon those alternative energy programs and switch back to oil, it's happened before.</p>

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I'm thinking nuclear, chemical, mechanical, and electrical, but there may be others.

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</p>

<p>Smart thinking!!!</p>

<p><a href="http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34956&dcn=todaysnews%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34956&dcn=todaysnews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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working out on a rig in the middle of the ocean is a lot more manly than being cooped up in a lab or some cubicle.</p>

<p>they're also probably the highest paid engineers coming right out of undergrad.</p>

<p>also I'd disagree with your oil statement, we'll be using oil for a long time, at least till it runs out. and if the price of oil goes down (which it has this week) people are going to abandon those alternative energy programs and switch back to oil, it's happened before.

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id rather be comfortable than manly! hah the rig job just isnt for me, maybe if i wasnt jewish or if the world we lived in was different i would consider working with saudi aramco or someone like that. i mean i want to make money (and you can do VERY well doing that, even being a truck driver), but money isnt important when your life is in danger. Being a fairly obvious jew, i couldnt see myself living in saudi arabia without problems...ANYWAY lol :p theres a good chance well be on oil for a while. I tihnk we may still work hard on other programs as the situation in many oil countries is becoming very complex, but at the same time we just found huge fields in the gulf of mexico. so who knows, but either way we need energy to live so the field has to keep blossoming</p>

<p>and rabban, ive seen some very cool government energy jobs! Theres one on usajobs for a nuclear engineer intelligence officer. That has to be interesting to be one of those people who takes data gained on iran etc and tries to figure out nuclear capabilities</p>

<p>PS. Do not discount government jobs, especially if you are S&E. Yes, the starting pay is not as high as private sectors, but few more years under your belt, your salary could be as high, or even higher than your colleagues in private industries. Don’t forget Job Security not to mention its excellent benefit package (pension, insurance, paid graduate education, uncle sam’s payment of your student loan) is a huge plus!!!</p>

<p>Oil's going to be around for a long time. Major energy infrastructure changes take decades, and it's not like we even have the tech to really replace oil now. </p>

<p>On a side note however, what field would solar power fall under? It seems to be a jack of all trades, electrical(obvious), materials, mechanical(for sunlight tracking systems and/or optical engineering), chemical(for manufacturing the silicon). Anyone actually work/do an internship with a solar company?</p>

<p>How about Nuc E?</p>